27 November 2015

I was recently invited by Mary Jo Madda from EdSurge to share some thoughts on who taught me to write in an article posted yesterday as part of their Thanksgiving Day celebrations. I was so happy to write about my amazing Mom Diana because she is the best. She is a former elementary teacher turned entrepreneur who has led a successful business with my father since 1978. I am very grateful for her pushing me to be better in all that I do and for helping me to always reach for my dreams.

I was one of many contributors to the article including some of my EdTech buddies like Rodney Turner, Kayla Delzer, Mary Jo Madda, Jin-Soo Huh, Kyle Pace, and many others! You should definitely go take a look and while there check out a number of the other great EdSurge stories. I love my affiliation with EdSurge and the friendships I have made because of it.

06 November 2015

I am so excited to be a part of the SUECON 2015 Conference as both a presenter and staff for the 3rd time. This amazing conference will be held at the beautiful Desert Hills High School! I will be presenting four different sessions, so if you are in the Southern Utah area, stop by today or tomorrow for some great educational sessions about how to be a better educator with or without technology, although I prefer with whenever possible! If you aren't able to attend this great conference in person, feel free to attend digitally through the hashtag #SUECON2015. There will be lots of information to learn, so follow along and join in the learning process. I will be presenting the following sessions and would love to see you there!Friday, November 6th:

4:50pm: 6 Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Be Using - Room 125 (In the Green Hall)

Whether you are a techie teacher or a techno-novice, there are a number of online tools available to help you increase your productivity and perfect your computer skills. This session will cover five main technology areas: storage solutions, password management, bookmarking, information gathering and information sharing. Each of the five areas include multiple options to help allow for both flexibility of choice and availability of assortment. The different areas contain multiple tools, including; online flash drives, applications to help you remember your different passwords, the ability to save your Internet bookmarks to multiple web browsers and computers, sharing your bookmarks with others, RSS feeds, blogs, wikis, Twitter, and URL shorteners. Each of the areas contain both free and paid versions of tools allowing everyone the opportunity to use the products regardless of funding and finances.

The last thing many people think of when they hear the word “assessment” is fun, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Come learn how to more effectively assess your students in ways that help the assessment to still be fun and not just another boring test! We will discuss great tools like clickers (SRS devices), Plickers, Kahoot!, and maybe even a QR code or two!

Come learn how you can help your next Formative Assessment be more fun and engaging for your students!

Get ready to load up the Mystery Machine and put on your Sherlock detective hat because it's time to solve the case of the Mystery Skype Classroom! Do you want to find ways to help your students learn more about other states or counties here in Utah? How about connecting with different classrooms across the U.S. or world? How can you do all these things with a shrinking or non-existent field trip budget? Come find out and learn how Mystery Skype can help you make learning fun again!

Twitter has become a very popular tool for educators to use when trying to improve their teaching skills because it allows you to connect with other teachers all over the world. Getting involved with different Twitter chats is another way teachers can increase their knowledge and have fun learning. #UTedChat is a weekly Twitter chat that focuses on Utah teachers and helps us connect with one another so we can learn from teachers in our own state dealing with some of the same questions and issues we face.

As fun as and informative as these Twitter chats can be, they can also be downright difficult to figure out how to follow along AND add to the conversation. Come learn how to effectively participate in these chats by learning about different technology tools that can help this process along. We will cover a multitude of different tools that will make following along as well as contributing a snap!

We will look at both free and paid versions of tools allowing everyone the opportunity to learn and grow with #UTedChat each week as well as the many other Twitter chats available!

If you do come out, please feel free to come and say Hi! I would love to meet you. Happy learning!

15 October 2015

I am so excited to be a part of the UEA 2015 Convention as a presenter. I will be presenting two different sessions, so if you are in the Northern Utah area, stop by today or tomorrow for some great educational sessions about how to be a better educator with or without technology, although I prefer with whenever possible! If you aren't able to attend this great conference in person, feel free to attend digitally through the hashtag #UEA2015. There will be lots of information to learn, so follow along and join in the learning process. I will be presenting the following sessions and would love to see you there!Thursday, October 15th:8:00am: Solving the Case of the Mystery Skype Classroom - Room 200 C&D

Get ready to load up the Mystery Machine and put on your Sherlock detective hat because it's time to solve the case of the Mystery Skype Classroom! Do you want to find ways to help your students learn more about other states or counties here in Utah? How about connecting with different classrooms across the U.S. or world? How can you do all these things with a shrinking or non-existent field trip budget? Come find out and learn how Mystery Skype can help you make learning fun again!

10:45am: 6 Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Be Using - Room 200 C&D

Whether you are a techie teacher or a techno-novice, there are a number of online tools available to help you increase your productivity and perfect your computer skills. This session will cover five main technology areas: storage solutions, password management, bookmarking, information gathering and information sharing. Each of the five areas include multiple options to help allow for both flexibility of choice and availability of assortment. The different areas contain multiple tools, including; online flash drives, applications to help you remember your different passwords, the ability to save your Internet bookmarks to multiple web browsers and computers, sharing your bookmarks with others, RSS feeds, blogs, wikis, Twitter, and URL shorteners. Each of the areas contain both free and paid versions of tools allowing everyone the opportunity to use the products regardless of funding and finances.

If you do come out, please feel free to come and say Hi! I would love to meet you. Happy learning!

20 February 2015

I was just introduced (thanks so much Noel - @DrewEdu) to a great website where members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Foundation read aloud picture books and you watch them in a video. The site is called Storyline Online (Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube) and it is a free source for read alouds read by actors.

Storyline Online has 28 different books and the ones I have listened to have been very enjoyable. Each video has a run time so you can see how long it will take to read through it. They also have Free downloadable pdf Activity Guides to help you use the book in your class as well as links to buy each book with a small 8% being kept by the SAG Foundation. Take a look and see if one of these books would fit into something you are already doing, or make a plan based around one of these great read aloud stories, because it might be fun for the students to hear from another voice for a read aloud.

I have included the first read aloud video I watched because it is still one of my favorites. It is called To Be a Drum (Goodreads Link | Amazon Link) and it is written by Evelyn Coleman (Website | Twitter) and read aloud by the great James Earl Jones (IMDb page). Yes, it is read by the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, along with many other incredible acting roles.

If you tried this site with your students, let me know how they enjoyed it. So far, mine have loved it and keep asking about when they get to watch another great read aloud by a famous person. Apparently they have forgotten that they already get to have a read aloud with a famous person almost daily, ME their teacher! Maybe we better watch another one today in class?

19 January 2015

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! The more I learn about this holiday the more thankful I am for it. It has become a Day of Service and a reminder to help those around you so we can all live in a better country.

On MLK Day, Americans across the country come together for a day of service, picking up the baton handed to us by past generations and carrying forward their efforts. As one people, we show that when ordinary citizens come together to participate in the democracy we love, justice will not be denied.

So make the commitment to serve you community throughout the year - and make MLK Day a day on, not a day off.